As the headline of a 2018 GQ profile of Ethan Hawke put it, “Ethan Hawke Is Always in Style.” The man’s been cool for decades, and seems to have weathered the 2020s thus far unscathed by the Hollywood male impulse to dress for attention. Working with veteran stylist Michael Fisher, Hawke’s red-carpet outfits always look relaxed and lived-in.
On Wednesday, when the actor attended the Tribeca Festival premiere of the new documentary Metallica Saved My Life (because where else would Ethan Hawke be?), he wore a two-button navy velvet suit with a cowboyish graphic tee and a pair of well-loved Adidas Sambas in the delightfully unconventional colorway of “preloved yellow” and dark brown. A pretty steamy suit choice for a 90-degree June day in Manhattan, but the sneakers made us here at GQ HQ wonder about the state of Samba anxiety.
On GQ’s Instagram, senior social director Sasha Mutchnik shared Hawke’s photo while posing a question to the proverbial room: “Are Sambas still basic or have we progressed so far into the basic era that they’re neutral now?” Our intrepid readers sounded off in the comments.
“Damn I have that exact pair,” commented GQ columnist Chris Black, who probably wears his Sambas sans socks.
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“We talking about the same shoe that has been popular since the 70s lol it’ll never be ‘cooked,’” read one comment.
“I don’t wanna see you in sambas unless you ready to ball,” went another, which makes me wonder what the commenter would think of the current trend of people wearing soccer cleats as a fashion statement.
Another commenter, whom I can only assume is British, wrote, “Rishi ruined them forever, never forget this.”
But if there’s one person who almost certainly has never spent a moment of his life wondering whether or not his Sambas are still cool, it’s Ethan Hawke, right?
